


Gold and Dusty Windows

by scribblywobblytimeylimey



Category: Free!
Genre: 2020 Summer Olympics, Biting, Bottom Matsuoka Rin, Coming Out, Crybaby Matsuoka Rin, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Gay Panic, Getting Together, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Olympics, Public Display of Affection, Rin doesn't like the way people look at him, Sloppy Makeouts, Sousuke doesn't give a flying fuck, and the tags for the side pairing, as the major pairing, coming out in a more public sense, makoharu - Freeform, my writing has some common themes huh, oh good that's a tag already, public af, some implied onesided Rinharu, sourin, stop tagging now scrib, tags af, talk about him, think about him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 19:57:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4974064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblywobblytimeylimey/pseuds/scribblywobblytimeylimey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>For the last stroke of the race, he had the Midas touch. His hand brushed the edge of the pool, and it turned to gold.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The day Rin wins his first Olympic medal is the least satisfying day of his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gold and Dusty Windows

**Author's Note:**

> hi
> 
> 1\. Thank you to everyone who's ever read/commented (you should have a reply by now or very soon). You guys are what encourage me to keep creating and I'll never forget the things you've said to me. <3
> 
> 2\. I really do apologise for the disappearance re. that one fic. This goes out to long-term readers who can click through for more words on the topic on my profile. If you're new, aloha!
> 
> 3\. MakoHaru are my current OTP so my first Free!fic is obviously SouRin...I don't know what kind of swerve happened there but I'm in love with these two so the MH can wait.
> 
> (4. I'm a butt! 14th Oct edit b/c i forgot a line I really wanted to put in here!)

 

For the last stroke of the race, he had the Midas touch. His hand brushed the edge of the pool, and it turned to gold.

He couldn’t hear when he came up, and he couldn’t see – his eyes were stinging with tears and somehow he knew without looking that he’d won. In the years to come, when he watched it back, he’d understand it was because of the surge of a stadium calling out his name, his coach and his team flooding to pull him out of the water. But in the moment, it was sheer, stunned instinct that had him grinning, crying in shock.

In fact, he had most of the results of the race within seconds without registering a single word; without seeing a number or hearing a name.

He only realised after the event that the man had vaulted across from the stands, outrunning security; that was how he came to be embracing the next swimmer out of the pool in a passionate kiss.

There was a sharp intake of breath from the infinite crowds, drawn in as if as one, and that was the moment Rin’s victory was over.

That was how he knew Haru placed second.

One displaced moment later, the stadium was back to applauding, and it seemed even louder to Rin’s ears. His team was drawing Haru into the throng, and the man – it was Makoto, Tachibana Makoto – was being led gently away with a grin splitting his face.

Try as he might, Rin couldn’t remember anything else of the day’s events but a blur.

*

The hotel was five-star and so was his suite. The only thing safer than him and his teammates right now were their medals from the day’s events, including the swimmers’ spoils; a hat-trick of gold, bronze, and silver.

Nanase Haruka’s silver.

It was 3am before he was finally alone after Japan’s most successful day of the home games so far. The interviewers asked Haru almost more questions than Rin, loath as he was to answer any of them. Tachibana’s little stunt had racked up a record number of hits online for the timeframe, Rin gathered; more people than saw him win gold, unless the clip they watched was gracious enough to include it.

“An Olympic first,” they were calling it.

What about _his_ first?

“The most controversial moment in television history,” he heard at one point. It also sounded like the Russian swimmer who’d been Haru’s close third was considering declining his medal in the wake of it all.

And now Rin was finally alone in his plush hotel room, and suffocating in the clean, chilled air of it. He needed to get out. He needed to be somewhere dirtier.

It was probably a bad idea, but Rin knew that with the help of a hoodie and a baseball cap he was unrecognisable, even to his closest friends. Besides, the medal wasn’t on him.

 _The medal._ Was he already thinking about it like some hollow prop?

He walked – was jostled – to a point farther out of the city before hailing a taxi.

Sousuke’s hotel was less central and less glamorous. Rin never thought he’d be jealous of it.

It took quite a while knocking before he made it to the door. At least some people had the luxury of falling asleep tonight.

Sousuke’s eyes weren’t quite open until he saw Rin. “Yo.” He held up his fist, and Rin dutifully bumped it, sighing at the absurdity.

“Get in here.”

“It’s late. Sorry.”

“Get the hell in here, gold medallist,” Sousuke grinned, and Rin grinned back, suddenly dancing into the room as if atop a cloud.

He flopped back against the bed, pumping the air and letting his limbs fly up before laughing and wooping, closing his eyes and letting the light of the muted TV flicker over him in the dark room like flashbulbs. The creaky double bed felt so much better than the super-king in his own suite, which was so soft and clean he wouldn’t be surprised to learn he was the first to ever sleep on it.

Sousuke closed the door behind them. “So?! Do I get to see the sucker?”

“Yeah, right,” Rin snorted, sitting back up again. “How would that shoulder fare against armed guards?”

Sousuke rolled it contemplatively as he handed Rin a beer. “Oh, I don’t know. Good enough to win the last regional heats…”

Rin gawped and punched his good arm. “You asshole! You’ve been holding out on me!”

The next hour was the most glorious, narcissistic, and inebriated of his life, but the inevitable had to come up at some point, and at least his friend had the decency to clear his throat beforehand.

“So, I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about the ‘moment of the century’.”

And at least there was a grimace on his face to match the one that sprung up on Rin’s.

He shook his head absently. “What a brat...”

Sousuke sucked in a diplomatic breath. “So. Nanase’s gay.”

“It would seem so.” His voice was even sourer than he’d expected.

“And Tachibana…well, if you could’ve guessed one part, that bit follows.”

“They can both suck my dick,” Rin snapped. “He still lost.”

Sousuke looked at him for a moment; that was all he did.

A few seconds later, Rin was curled limply against the mattress, sobbing drunkenly into the bedsheets.

“Oi,” Sousuke said, patting his shoulder lightly. “You’re right. He lost.”

That just made him cry harder. Pathetic.

Sousuke, to his credit, just sat next to him silently until he’d cried himself out, however long that actually took.

“You,” he tried, after a few minutes of silence from Rin. “You always had a thing for him, didn’t you.”

Rin tried to raise his head, shout at his friend, accuse him of picking a fight. All he said instead was “I don’t know.” 

His throat was burning and that was the quietest he’d ever heard his own voice. He wondered with a mild, out-of-body panic if he’d just… _come out._

Sousuke sighed. “Well, either way.” His voice was harsh; determined. “Whether it was his swimming or – whatever it was. You won. You beat him, Rin. That is the only thing you have ever wanted. Right?”

Next thing he knew, Sousuke had gripped his chin and roughly lifted his head so he could look at him. “You won,” he repeated firmly. “You just won your first gold medal, bitch, and the week’s not even over. And you beat your childhood rival in the very same race. And now you’re hanging out with a childhood friend in a dusty hotel room with enough of the cheapest alcohol on this street that it tastes like Chardonnay. And guess what? You won. You won gold. I’m going to say that every damn day for the rest of my life and it’ll never not be true. You won _for_ your country, _in_ your country, you bastard, and if you think that’s not better, that’s not gonna last longer than some goddamn viral kiss-“

Rin swiped his hand away before he knew he was doing it and his hands were on Sousuke’s face and he knocked him onto his back against the mattress and he was kissing him ferociously.

Then he caught himself and pulled back dizzily and wiped his mouth and said, “I don’t know what the fuck’s going on,” to which Sousuke growled “No shit”, and nearly pulled out his hair yanking him back down into the kiss.

Apart from the fact he was about to pass out, it was divine.

Oh god, he was gonna pass out.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and put his head between his knees.

“Alright,” Sousuke said, hypocritically breathlessly, “Just breathe, alright. Geez, you’re gonna be the fucking death of me…”

Rin choked out something in between a sob and a laugh.

He took the minute he needed to stabilise, but the words "our boy Rin's a late bloomer" kept on echoing in his ears, loud as the first time he ever heard them.

“They fucking cheered,” he whispered from between his own legs. “I – I was sixteen when they tried to ban people – people like that in the winter games.”

Sousuke swallowed. “Yeah,” he said quietly.

“I never. I never said anything to anyone and I still got black eyes over it. And that little…he just…and now he’s man of the fucking century. So tell me, is he ever going to stop fucking me over?” He finally looked up at Sousuke, eyes shining violently.

Somehow, his friend looked calm. “So what you’re saying is you’d never have done that.”

“Well, no!”

“Well, he tested the waters, then,” Sousuke said insistently, “and now you know there’s – now you know that there’s nothing to be afraid of, Rin.”

Rin’s mouth fell open, ostensibly for more words to fall out, but all that happened was a stunned little noise.

“You won the gold medal today.” His voice was gruff. “So you just try telling me you can’t get whatever the hell you want from this world.”

Rin stared.

“I thought-“

“I wasn’t about to get in the way of your training.”

“But you-“

“I what? Don’t seem the type?”

Rin knew his face was red, but he steeled himself. “I’m not interested in Haru,” he said. “Just because I had some stupid crush on him when we were in school. I just – I just wanted to beat him in the water and I was a horny teenager with a thing for brunets but I don’t want him,” Rin insisted, “I don’t want him like I want you. I-“

_Oh, damn. He just said that._

Sousuke shook his head with a disbelieving little chuckle and he slid over to Rin’s side to kiss him again.

Now he was kissing a man and it was as sinful as he ever imagined, with something ingrained in him telling him it was wrong, wrong, wrong, but for once he told that voice to shut up and let him hold him, and as soon as he let it, his body started burning up.

Now he was gasping for breath between kisses.

Now he was wondering what the hell he was ever worried about. Sousuke’s kisses just seemed to get hotter and hotter and oh, god, he _needed_ this.

They quickly lost their shirts and he needed _that_ even more. All of a sudden he was in Sousuke’s lap, just _needing_ him with all of his being, and one firm, decisive hand was roaming his back -

Rin broke away with a gasp. He couldn’t ignore the shiver that ignited his body when he felt the situation going on beneath him, but he didn’t expect or intend to actually vocalise it until the words bloomed out of his mouth.

“Fuck, you’re big.”

 _Oh god kill me now._ Preferably with sex. _Ohgodkillmeagain. Shut up. Shut up, Rin._

“Mn,” Sousuke was murmuring back, flushed face deepening. “Not sure I’ll fit.”

“Oi,” Rin said, despite the thrill that went through him, biting Sousuke’s neck. “Fit where, exactly?”

Sousuke grunted at the bite and flushed deep red at being called out, but his embarrassment only lasted a moment before he transferred it to Rin with a breathy, “Wherever you want it.”

Because, alright, maybe he’d been bluffing for the façade of it, but damn; now Sousuke’d said that it was all he could think about.

He’d be damned if he was going to admit that, though, so he just kept biting at his neck.

Sousuke gasped in return. “Your teeth are fucking sharp…” he groaned.

Rin replaced them with his tongue, because god, he just needed to be _at_ that neck.

“Don’t stop,” he breathed. “I’ve wanted you to bite me since before I knew I wanted you.”

Rin laughed and ground his teeth on him hard. “You kinky fuck.”

“Mm, bite me.”

They kissed each other needily instead.

“You’re so hot,” Sousuke breathed, voice so low and rough and masculine it was going to be the end of him. “Fuck. I can’t believe I’m in bed with – with an Olympic gold medallist. Hot _damn.”_

Rin squirmed in his lap, trying to keep himself from grinding against him. “Keep talking.” 

“Your ass is out of this world…”

“No, I meant about my gold medal…”

Sousuke laughed, clear and loud, and damn if that wasn’t the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard. 

Rin leaned down to kiss him again.

“You know,” Sousuke murmured into his mouth, “I could one-up that bastard so easily. Say the word, I’ll vault the stands and kiss you ten times better.”

If Rin weren’t busy melting at the tongue he might have freaked out over that idea. “Hm, let me get back to you on that…”

“Well, you do have a few more days to decide…”

 _Maybe in four years time,_ Rin thought to himself absently, too intoxicated by the kiss to even realise what he was thinking.

At least no paparazzi had followed him out here; though it would have been hard to take pictures through dusty windows.

 

*

**Author's Note:**

> Any thoughts of one-upping Haru were kiboshed on the last day when Makoto jumped the stands again to get down on one knee.
> 
> Show-off.


End file.
